Engineering 4 Society: the role of Participatory Design...interactive toys made from those gadgets? With that thought, ThinkerToys started, converting eWaste into educational fun interactive

engineering 4 society:

the role of participatory design

daria loi, phd

user experience innovation

Daria Loi, Keynote @ E4S, June 2015 - Leuven, Belgium

technology = transformation

George Stibitz, 1939Complex Number Calculator1st demo of remote access computing

Nobutoshi Kihara, 1978Sony Walkman1st portable music device

Ray Tomlinson, 19711st email system1st @ sign in an email address


…of how we compute …of how we listen to music …of how we communicate

Credits: Computer History Museum Credits: © Globe Newspaper Company Credits: Flickr/whlwcl

where transformations end


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“Most of them will die from cancer in their 20s and grow up without education.

Instead of working here for a few weeks, earn some money and leave the place as they expect, they often fall into this vicious circle of Agbogbloshie: when they have enough money, they often get sick and have to spend it on medicine, sleeping pills and food.

To earn more money, they resume working here again and again, until they are eventually not able to leave this place and start their dream.”

(source: http://fotografiamagazine.com/agbogbloshie-kevin-mcelvaney/)

Agbogbloshie is the largest e-waste processing site in Ghana and one of the "worst polluted" places on Earth.

we created this (call for action!)


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expand our skillset

understand communities and contexts impacted through our work

apply our craft to do the right thing right

be the hummingbird


watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

embrace participatory design

develop creative solutions to issues

that afflict our planet by partnering with end users and key

stakeholders


expand our skillset

understand communities and contexts impacted through our work

apply our craft to do the right thing right

what is participatory design?

g o a l

make what is designed more responsive to human needs.

a p p r o a c hdirect involvement of people in the co-design of things & the technologies they use.


designing

with

how do you design “with”?

understand

context


document the everyday

imagine new opportunities

design & iterate

understand context[imagined vs real needs & solutions]


Rachel Field, Bicyclean "I knew it was very important to the project that I see what was going on first hand, and that I really talk to people," Rachel explains. "There was a phase where I had this vision of building something like those emergency trailers that go out after big storms, but with a little chemical lab in it. Of course, once I went there, I realized that would make no sense.” (source: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2013/06/designing-cleaner-future)

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https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2013/06/designing-cleaner-future

document the everyday[learn, then practice]


Dr. Daniel Ploeger, “Bodies of planned obsolescence” Lagos, March 2015, http://www.e-waste-performance.net

An international group of artists, cultural theorists and scientists follow a practice-based approach to explore the materiality of obsolete and discarded electronic devices in a series of workshops, symposiums and exhibitions in Hong Kong and Guiyu, China, Lagos, Nigeria, and London, UK. Central to the workshops in Nigeria and China will be a series of practice-based explorations of e-waste recycling labour.

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http://www.e-waste-performance.net/

imagine new opportunities[making magic, to make a difference]


Dhairya Dand, Thinker Toyshttp://dhairyadand.com/thinkertoys/

“As a designer and engineer, I asked myself what should I do, I do not have political or economical power enough to make a difference. (….). Maybe fun interactive toys made from those gadgets? With that thought, ThinkerToysstarted, converting eWaste into educational fun interactive toys.”

http://dhairyadand.com/thinkertoys/

design & iterate[co-design, together & across]


Dr. DK Osseo-Asare, “Qamp” - Ghanahttp://qamp.net/

Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) is a transnational youth-driven project to promote maker ecosystems in Africa, starting at Agbogbloshie. Our agenda is collective action: join hands to prototype tools and co-create a hybrid digital-physical platform for recycling, making, sharing and trading. We maintain that to realize an innovative future for Africa, we must start from the ground up: mining what already works for models and methods, and deploying co-design within existing communities of makers, across class, religious and tribal strata.

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http://qamp.net/

3 key lessons for engineering


acquire new tools & techniques

key – yet not the only one, not above

be a relentless humble collaborator

take risks (leave teddy home)

walk in the city: watch, listen, work with

use your craft to make magic

1.

2.

3.

a drop in the ocean


It’s just like mathematics (…)

I know I should care and if everyone had the attitude I have it’s not good but…

I just know that just that one laptop going to the landfill (…) is not going to make a big difference for anything….

so it’s just a drop in the ocean.

(interview with a young man in his 20s, May 2015 – question was “what do you do with your technology once it’s broken or no longer useful to you?”)

a young hummingbird


13yo young mandesires the last Kindle Fire (valued at $99)saved $67 to date

(interview with a young teen, May 2015 – question was “would you pay more if you could buy the same product with an eco-label and if yes, how much more?”)


Boyan Slat, 21 – Founder and CEO of The Ocean CleanupInstead of going after the plastic, Boyan devised a system though which, driven by the ocean currents, the plastic would concentrate itself, reducing the theoretical cleanup time from

millennia to mere years. In 2013, he dropped out of his Aerospace Engineering study to found The Ocean Cleanup.

equipping participatory hummingbirds

Credit: Manuel Freudt / VICE Media

http://www.theoceancleanup.com/


equipping participatory hummingbirds[the role of education]

we need more. we must enable them.

Credit: Manuel Freudt / VICE Media

thank you.

Documents

Engineering 4 Society: the role of Participatory Design...interactive toys made from those gadgets? With that thought, ThinkerToys started, converting eWaste into educational fun interactive